THE first passengers to use the UK's long-awaited high-speed Channel Tunnel Rail Link arrived in London yesterday and declared, "It's amazing."

Eurostar trains from Paris and Brussels were arriving up to 10 minutes early after travelling through Kent at speeds of 186mph on the new &#xA3;1.9bn link.

Eurostar managers said the 46-mile link from Folkestone to North Kent, which has shaved 20 minutes off the journey time from Paris, was "working perfectly," bringing 20,000 passengers into London yesterday alone.

Director of communications Paul Charles, speaking from Waterloo, said, "The link is working brilliantly. Not only are trains arriving on time with no delays, but some are actually early.

"We have had a train from Paris arriving 10 minutes early and are expecting a train from Brussels to be three minutes early.